Laura Macdonald

Laura Macdonald's three day jazz workshop finished with her pupils giving a fabulous showcase concert in the afternoon.

I managed to get a few shots of Laura before the concert started.

Laura is an amazing talent, she began playing alto saxophone at the age of sixteen at school in Prestwick, Ayrshire. Her progress was swift. Within months she was playing lead alto in the Strathclyde Youth Jazz Orchestra and gaining her first international experience, performing with SYJO at Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

In 1995, having attracted the attention of Dean of Students, Larry Bethune, on a visit to Glasgow, Laura was given a full scholarship to Berklee School of Music in Boston. She studied with Bill Pierce, formerly a saxophonist with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and a distinguished teacher, musician and bandleader, and graduated in 1997 having won the school’s annual Excellence in Performance award. Laura was nominated for the Outstanding Performer prize at Glasgow International Jazz Festival in 1996 and became the first winner of the Scottish Young Jazz Musician of the Year award in 1997. In 1998, Laura became lead alto player in the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, playing the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis and Gil Evans and contributing her composition Royal Mile to the orchestra’s The Edinburgh Suite. She also occupied the lead alto chair in an all-star Ellington Big Band alongside former Ellington musicians Buster Cooper and Barry Lee Hall in Switzerland in 2000.

Additional commissions from SNJO include ‘Straighten Out’ - a tribute to Thelonious Monk. She released her first album, Laura, on Spartacus Records in 2000. Recorded in New York with a heavyweight American trio comprising David Budway (piano), James Genus (bass) and Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts (drums), it featured Laura’s own compositions alongside well-known pieces by Charles Mingus and Pat Metheny and received very favourable reviews. Her second album 'Awakenings' featured Laura’s International Sextet playing music she composed for the group’s highly successful initial tour in summer 2003. This group was to tour again in 2004 throughout the U.K.

Laura has supported Michel Camilo and George Benson in concert. Outside of her playing, composing and recording interests, Laura holds a number of educational posts. Director of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland 2001-03, and tutor for South Lanarkshire Council from 2002-12 as well as numerous annual jazz education courses, jazz workshops and jazz improvisation consultancy work.

2005 saw Laura win a 'Take Five' initiative award funded by the Jerwood Foundation. Her next project saw her performing a new specially commissioned Octet piece at the London Jazz Festival in November with a special workshop taking place at the Royal Academy of London. In 2007 Laura completed a tour of Sweden and a third C.D recording. October was the premier of a new large scale commission for the Martyn Bennett Trust. February 2008 saw the release of Laura Macdonald and Martina Almgrens new album ‘Open Book’ and 2008 continued to be an important year with tours to Sweden, Germany and a unique performance as one of Ken Peplowski’s All Stars on the ‘Jazz Cruise 08’ in the Caribbean performing with Wycliffe Gordon and Claudio Roditti.

In 2009 Laura was commissioned to write a new sextet suite that was premiered at Islay Jazz Festival. A unique duo piece featuring saxophone and bodhran was also performed on a remote ruin on the island. 2010 saw Laura collaberating with composer Tom Bancroft on a large scale piece called ‘Band of Eden’. 2012 saw Laura joining drummer Martina Almgren in sweden for a tour of her new recording with her group ‘Oh Yeah’ featuring compositions from Macdonald and Almgren. In 2012 Laura was nominated for a Paul Hamlyn Composition Award. Most recently Laura was a recipient of the Culture 2014 20 for 14 Artist Commission. Her 90 minute piece ‘Commonwealth Suite’ premiered at the 2014 Glasgow Jazz Festival. Her new album ‘Duets’ with David Berkman was released at the London Jazz Festival on the 15th November 2014. Laura continues to strive forward as one of the U.K's most prominent women in Jazz.